PM Modi chairs late night CEC meeting to pick candidates for LS polls

New Delhi, Feb 29: The meeting of BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) began on Thursday at the party headquarters in national capital to finalise the first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, party sources said.

The meeting is being held under the chairmanship of BJP National President J.P. Nadda in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, National BJP Organisation General Secretary B.L. Santosh, Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, party leaders K. Laxman, Iqbal Singh Lalpura and other top members of the CEC were also present in the meeting.

According to sources, earlier on Thursday, a high-level meeting was held in the presence of Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda at the official residence of Prime Minister Modi.

Union Ministers Mansukh Mandaviya, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai and former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje were also present in the party's CEC meeting.

Besides, Deputy Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states and party in-charges of various states, co-election in-charges and top leaders of the State Core Committee formed regarding the upcoming Lok Sabha elections were also present in the CEC meet.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP's CEC meeting will brainstorm to finalise the names of party candidates on more than 150 Lok Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Telangana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Goa, Jharkhand, Delhi, Tripura, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, including many other states and union territories.

According to BJP sources, the party is likely to release the first list of Lok Sabha candidates on Friday.